Cold War Brochure

Rylie Petrangeli

Cold War Brochure

Rylie Petrangeli

The Cold War was a series of tension and multiple events that went back and forth between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It lasted from 1947-1991. The Cold War ended when the Communist, Soviet Union collapsed. The reasoning behind the name for the war, it because there was never actually any direct or physical combat between the two countries. Although, they both had the same drive for power at the time.

Causes Of The Cold War

There were multiple things that contributed to the formation of the Cold War. Stating the obvious, one of the many were America's fear of communism. Having the Soviets wanting to spread communism, this led to big tension between the two countries. Not to mention it is basically the reason why Americans got involved in the Korean and Vietnam War.

In addition to the list of reasons why the Cold War began, was the Soviets allowing people of Eastern Europe to determine their own fates by imposing totalitarian rule on territories that weren't lucky enough to fall behind the Iron Curtain. Many people also believe a heavy contributor was the American's who ignored the Soviet's legitimate security concerns, sought to intimidate the world with the atomic bomb, and continued to push to expand their international influence and increase market dominance.

Overall, no one exactly started the Cold war. After World War II, there was tension between the US and USSR which emerged from the conflict as the only two nations on earth that could even hope to propagate their social and political standpoint to a global scale.

Events To Think About

Containment

Containment was a foreign policy adapted in the beginning of the Cold War. The policy was made to prevent the Soviet Union from spreading communism. adding on to the prevention of communism, it also heavily influenced the U.S. to partake in the wars involved with communism (Korean and Vietnam War)

Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was often used to describe the figurative and physical boundaries during the Cold War. They bounded off where the communist controlled and the territories they didn't have influence on.

Brinkmanship

Brinkmanship was a word that was commonly used during the Cold War. It best describes the political act of pushing events to their boiling point without actually achieving a physical conflict.

The Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine was created by President Harry Truman. It stated that the U.S. would supply economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism / Soviet Union.

NATO

NATO stands for; North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949). The alliance was formed by the U.S. and other noncommunist countries. These countries include France and Britain. After the Soviets discovered about NATO, they formed their own alliances of communist countries which was then called the Warsaw Pact.

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was often commonly called the European Recovery Act. This was an act that was passed in 1947 by President Harry Truman. The act focused on preparing democratic parts of Europe that were damaged during WWII.

The Berlin Airlift

After WWII ended, the control of Germany was divided between four Allies; U.S., France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The Soviets controlled the part of Berlin. The Soviets wanted to control more of Germany so they shut down canals, highways, and railroads in Berlin. This prevented other Allies from getting supplies. Instead of trafficking things through cities, the other Allies decided to airlift supplies which was more successful in the long run.

McCarthyism

McCarthyism is a term which came from harsh the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In February 1950, McCarthy gave his speech which informed the U.S. that he had a list of 200 plus people whom were accused/suspected to be communists. This one speech lead to many false accusations and got into investigations that had no evidence. A lot of people lost their jobs and future because of the false accusations. Because of his alcoholism, McCarthy died in 1957.

The Korean War

The Korean started in 1950 between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea. The North was supported by the Soviets and Chinese while the South was supported by the U.S. The war lasted for three years and resulted in a signed agreement to cease-fire and borders between North and South Korea, whom have different governments.

The Space Race

The Space Race refers to the U.S. and Soviets Union's race to see who would be the first to develop space travel. In 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite named Sputnik into orbit. This brought attention and tension to the U.S. and caused them to push for their own satellite. In 1958, the U.S. launched the Explorer I, and a space program called NASA was created the same year. After many years of the Space Race, the Americans were successful. The launch of Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and Neil Armstrong was the very first to walk on it.

The U-2 Incident

The

U-2 Incident was a huge conflict between the U.S. and Soviets. During this, the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet airways. The Soviets captured the pilot and president Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to admit to the Soviets that they had been spying over Soviet airways for years. Eisenhower only served 2 years of his sentence because he was given back to the U.S in exchange for a Soviet spy that was being held in the U.S.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed invasion of Cuba by the U.S. in 1961. After the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro took over Cuba and claimed himself the leader. After he took power a lot of people were either exiled or chose to flee home. The CIA began to train Cubans for an invasion that was then known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Having the invasion failed, the U.S. were forced to give Cuba $53 million towards food and supplies in return for Cuban captives.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a political stand off between the U.S. and Soviets. It started in October 1962 and lasted 13 days. It all started when the Soviets decided to put missiles in Cuba, which is who they're allied with. When the U.S. found out about this, they began to plan an attack. A lot of people were scared that it would start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The two sides came to an agreement that the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba and the U.S. promised not to invade Cuba anymore.